Frost
by TheHypothesisOfSouls
Summary: "I've brought this on myself," he told her. "I put myself first and didn't try hard enough to make her feel like she was special. Maybe that's why she never said yes when I asked her to be my wife... But how could I ever compete with... him?" Elsa x Jack not-so-one-shot-anymore. Rated T to be safe. Comments are always appreciated.
1. Brother

**A/N:** I'd been suffering from writer's block for several days when I went to see Frozen. Coincidentally, the next day I watched the Rise of The Guardians for the millionth time with my brother. And perhaps unfortunately, I ended up writing this. It'll be a one-shot for as long as I desire it to be, whether that be forever or a week. Tell me if you think it requires another chapter!

- Thos x

* * *

"Tell him I don't want to see him. Tell him to leave me alone."

This was the Snow Queen's desperate, heartbroken plea as she laced her fingers together and pushed them down into her lap, brutally ashamed of the silent tears trickling down her pure skin.

"Elsa, you gotta face up to him sometime..." the Queen's younger sister softly reasoned with her.

"No, I don't," she sharply replied, only to wince at her own abrasive tone. Ungraciously, she drew the back of her hand across the bottom of her nose. She was aware of footsteps behind her as her sister drew closer.

"Anna. Go and tell him to leave."

The Queen's urgent tone made the said girl freeze in her spot, less than two feet from her lonely side.

"Elsa, if you'd just let me -"

"Did you hear me?"

Elsa turned her head away from the window she was looking out of, halfway to turning her head around another 90° and making eye contact with Anna.

"Did you hear what I said?" she repeated.

Silence passed. Anna stood behind her Queen, who had both hands laid softly across her stomach.

"Yes," was her curt reply. Seconds later, she had left Elsa's master bedroom and was making her way down the stretch of hallway in their palace, still singed from her sister's words.

Elsa, sitting on the window ledge, allowed herself fall to pieces.

The moment Anna pushed through the wooden doors of the back entrance to the palace, the brave young Guardian immediately tore his vision from the miniature snowstorm he had created on the ground and looked up.

The moment he saw her face, sorrowful and morose, he crumpled.

"She... She said..."

Anna got that far as she slid down the concrete steps, then as she stood in front of him, all words fell from her.

He looked to the ground as his mini-snowstorm died away. The broken princess watched the tears form in his eyes, then allowed herself to cry.

"Jack, I'm sorry... I'm so sorry..."

Anna reached forward to hug Jack, but he turned away from her.

"It's okay," he whispered after a while, icy tears glittering on the pavement below him. Plenty more were to follow.

"She... She wants you g-gone."

She straightened up, attempting to swallow her tears. She was unsuccessful.

"Okay."

He turned a little, then paused. He wondered about hiding his tears. Pointless, he decided. He could hide nothing from Anna.

"But you can't leave..." she whispered as he turned to properly face her. "You can't..."

"She wants me gone," he stated evenly, still unable to meet Anna's gaze. "You said it yourself. I've brought this war on and it's my duty to end it. She wants me to leave, so I go." Slowly, he lifted his head up and faced her. The moment their eyes met, they both filled up with tears.

Anna flew into Jack and hugged him tight. Jack wrapped his arms around her after a minute and hugged her equally as tight, burying his head into the silk of her dress and crying on her shoulder.

"Four years," she whispered to him, placing a hand on the back of his head. "Four years, you were very nearly my brother and now you have to go."

There was no doubt about the utter regret in her voice.

Jack slowly pulled away and shrugged, trying for a broken and tearful smile.

"I've brought this on myself," he told her. "I put myself first and didn't try hard enough to make her feel like she was special. Maybe that's why she never said yes when I asked her to be my wife... But how could I ever compete with... him?"

The bitter edge to his last question made Anna start. She stepped forward and placed two fingers underneath his chin, lifting his head up so he was forced to look at her.

"No. No, no, don't ever say that again, okay? Elsa didn't love Hans. She chose you over Hans. She chose you, Jack!"

"Yeah, only then to banish me from Arendelle," he muttered, gently pulling her fingers off his chin.

"She hasn't banished you, she just..."

Her voice tailed away. What was the point in finishing her sentence? It wouldn't change anything.

Jack smiled a little.

"Look after her," he murmured. He turned away and began to walk. Anna caught hold of his arm.

"Jack, wait! You're not really going, are you?" she asked. It was beginning to sink in, and it felt like someone had punched her in the stomach and torn her muscles open. She felt sick.

For four years, she'd laughed at his jokes and ignored his whining; she'd ruffled his hair and ducked when he tried to return it; she'd refereed endless ice-blasting matches between Jack and her sister. He'd been like a brother - no, he was her brother. And now he had to leave.

Things hadn't been right between Elsa and Jack for a while. Jack was becoming distant and uninterested; Elsa had become irritated and snide. When they did find the time between Elsa's Queen duties and Jack's Guardian jobs to be together, it was always the same. Elsa would shoot some scathing remark at him, Jack would pretend he couldn't hear her. He'd never show any affection, nor would she. It was a vicious circle, and it just so happened that this time, Elsa had overstepped the mark and Jack had retaliated by screaming every little flaw she had at her. Anna had been powerless and distraught. There was nothing she could do.

Jack shrugged slightly.

"I dunno. I'm going... I'm gonna clear my head for a while."

Anna frowned. There were new, fresh tears in her eyes that she couldn't shift.

"Hey, it's okay," he told her softly, gently pulling at a loose strand of hair on her head. "Tell Elsa... Well, tell her what you like, I guess. But tell Kristoff and the kids I say bye, and that I'll write a lot. Promise."

Anna's brow melted and tears escaped from her eyes.

"Ava and Ivan will be so sad..."

"Hey, Shh, it's okay. It's okay. Give Rapunzel and Eugene and everyone over in Corona a hug from me as well, yeah? And as for you..."

He couldn't help but let himself cry now, as he stood tall and kissed Anna very softly on the forehead.

"Well, you look after yourself, okay?"

Several moments later he was gone, and Anna felt lost. She ran inside the palace and collapsed on the cold marble floor, sobbing for what felt like hours.

He was gone.

He was really, really gone.

She hated him for leaving. She hated Elsa for making him leave. She hated herself from not forcing him to stay.

She managed to make it upstairs without falling to pieces, and when she found Elsa's room, her sorrow turned to anger.

She shoved open the door like it was paper and, with a face of thunder, faced her tearful sister, who was still sitting at the window.

"He's gone! Are you happy now, Elsa? He's gone!"

As soon as she'd said those words she regretted them. Elsa's skin tone resembled the 'moments from death' shade.

"Anna... Anna..." her voice was high and panicked, her eyes wide. Elsa attempted to walk over to her sister but faltered in her step, trembling.

Anna ran over to her sister's side, helping her to the bed.

"What is it?" she dared to ask.

And she really wished she hadn't.

Because her answer winded Anna in three seconds flat.

"I... Anna, I... I think I'm pregnant..."


	2. Butterfly Kicks

**A/N**: Yeah... I was never gonna leave you guys hanging like that. *grins deviously* Well at first I thought I was, and then I was like, '_IHAVETOWRITEMOREORIWILLEXPLODE_'. So I wrote a chapter two. And three. And four. And I'm starting chapter five soon. So much for the one-shot! I really hope you guys like it. Oh, and I'm sorry for lack of Jack/Elsa action so far. I can confirm there will be some in chapter three... so just hang on for now. But I absolutely loved the reviews and I love you all so much! If you keep reviewing, I'll keep writing :3

- Thos x

* * *

The room was dimly lit and growing colder. The only light was coming from the window in the Queen's bedroom, which was half open and gave way to the sun setting on quiet little Arendelle. Elsa smiled as she raked a hand through her satiny hair from where she was lying on her bed.

"I suppose I should tell you about your family," she started, looking up at the intricately decorated ceiling. She closed her eyes and began to tell the stories of love, loss and new beginnings her mind had danced over for so many years.

"I'll start with my sister - your Auntie Anna. Anna is a very pretty young girl, and she's a hopeless romantic. She fell in love with the first man she met, but... But that didn't really work out. Then she met a lovely man called Kristoff, and she fell even deeper in love with him. She married him a year ago, and they have little twins, Ava and Ivan - your cousins! They're very excited to meet you."

She spoke as softly and as kindly as she could possibly manage, constantly and delicately stroking her fingers across the slight swell of her stomach.

"Now, let me tell you about Avy and Ivan. Ava is very artistic and creative. She learnt to paint when she was just a year old and has loved it ever since!

"Ivan loves the cold, just like you and I, darling. He wants to take over Uncle Kristoff's ice business one day, and he's great at snowball fights!"

Elsa allowed herself a little giggle as she looked down at her stomach, then out of the window at the reddish-orange sky. It seemed to almost glimmer off her silk nightgown.

"Then there's our cousin, Rapunzel, who is soon to be the Queen of Corona! She's got a very long story... I hope you're taking notes in there, sweetheart! She was the Princess of Corona but was kidnapped when she was a baby because she has a special gift - just like you and I.

"She met a man called Eugene and discovered who she really was. She returned to her rightful position in the royal family a day after her eighteenth birthday, and then went on to marry Eugene. They have a beautiful little girl, Flora. She's excited to meet you too! Well, I think she is - she's only two, so she doesn't really understand. But she'll love you just like I do, sweetie. I promise. We'll go and visit them soon, shall we?

"Then there's my mom and dad. They were brilliant people, amazing parents and very noble leaders. But... They... Th-they died a while ago. They would have loved you very much too."

She had rushed through speaking of her parents like she'd been recalling a bad dream. She'd never really come to terms with her parent's death. As soon as they had died, it had been endless, exhausting talk of Elsa's impending reign: discussions of battle strategies and choices of husband, and practising dancing and how to say things correctly. She hadn't let herself stop to think about it for a second.

But as she smoothed her hand down to her lower abdomen, she felt a soft flutter. Her eyes widened to the size of golfballs as he whole body froze in shock. _Was that...?_

She repeated the movement again, stroking her left hand over her abdomen. The same retaliation followed.

The Snow Queen slowly broke out into a grin, and seconds after, she began to laugh. She was quiet at first, but as she felt her child's feet poke her stomach from the inside for a third time, her laugh grew louder, happier and more joyous with every passing second.

She sat up on the bed so she could look directly down at her swollen middle.

"Can you feel me?" she asked, and as she did so, she stroked her stomach lightly. "You can feel me, can't you?" she laughed. Moments later, she laid back down, her hand laid firmly across her bump with her fingers outstretched to increase the surface area of her child she was holding.

"So many people to love you," she whispered. "So very many. You will have nothing but the best of lives here, I promise. This is your kingdom, your empire, your life." She smiled lightly as she vaguely recalled her mother saying a similar thing to her when she was small. Somehow, the undeserved but certainly not unwelcome opportunity of a new beginning - a child, withdrew a fraction of the head-numbing pain from her parents' death.

She sighed and raked her hand through her white, shimmering hair again - a sign she was nervous.

"But I know I'm ignoring the elephant in the room," she told her unborn child. "Your father... Your father was a very brave, clever and committed Guardian of the children's faith. His name is Jack Frost, and he has powers similar to mine. He can create ice, snowstorms, winter in summer... He's... He's beautiful. But I did a very foolish thing. I sent him away, because I was scared. I was scared he wouldn't want me, he wouldn't want to... To be a family. I'm desperately mean to him, my darling... It's the only way I can get his attention. And now he's gone... Now you're left without a father."

She could feel the dreaded tears stinging behind her eyes, clamoring and threatening to make an appearance.

_Come on, Elsa. Hold it together._

_Come on._

"No," she blurted defiantly, opening her eyes. "No. You do have a father. You do. And he's out there waiting. I will not let you suffer because of my stupid mistakes. When the sun rises tomorrow morning, I'll call the guards in and tell them to send out a search party for him. You will have a father."

Her hands slowly slid from her stomach and pulled her bedcovers over her.

Anna, who was stood the other side of Elsa's door, silently smiled and ambled off down the hallway to tell the guards to send out their finest men for Jack Frost.


	3. Bitter Nostalgia

**A/N: **Hello guys! Chapter Three already, hey? I'm pretty shocked at the amount of lovely comments, views and followers I've gotten so far. I LOVE YOU ALL! :) Seriously though, it really means a lot. *Ahem* Mushy feels aside... or rather not, when it comes to this chapter! I think I enjoyed writing this one the most. It's basically just Elsa reflecting on her past with Jack, with a bit of Anna's side of what's going on. It's a bit longer than I anticipated it to be, but after LOTS of editing, I was like, aw screw it, let's chuck it up there already! I really hope you guys like it, and don't forget to drop me a review!

- Thos xx

* * *

"Kris, what if they don't find Jack?"

The troubled young girl looked up at her husband as she blurted out the question that had been plaguing her for the past two weeks.

Kristoff finished tying rope around a large slab of ice and turned to Anna, smiling slightly.

"They will," he told her softly. He reached forwards and so lightly, so delicately tucked a strand of satiny hair behind her ear.

There was a part of him that was still so terrified to touch her. Of course, they had been married a year and had five-year-old twins, but he knew he was, and had always been completely unworthy and undeserving of her.

He was a stocky ice-seller raised by trolls; she was the beautiful Princess of Arendelle and the heir apparent to the throne - or at least she had been until Elsa had become pregnant.

"But what if they don't?" she mumbled, her brow creasing. "It's been two weeks since they've started searching and Elsa's going for her next scan next week. They might be able to tell her the gender of the baby. I don't want him to miss that, Kris. And besides - I miss him."

"So do I, snowball," he sighed. He ignored - as he tried to most of the time - his fear of contaminating her with his lowly self and pulled her close for a hug. "So do I. But we have to wait. We have to trust that the guards are doing the best they can." He put his cheek against the top of her head and held her tight.

Anna inhaled his warm, homey scent and relaxed against him. Kristoff wasn't often one to hug her or kiss her huge amounts; it wasn't as if he never went near her but she would have like it if he'd at least held her a little more often. When she'd questioned it on multiple accounts, he'd shrugged and kissed her and said he was sorry. She'd eventually managed to get an answer from him - well, from Elsa, but it was still an answer.

Kristoff had confined in Elsa after she'd confronted him because Anna and him had had a fight, regarding the fact Kristoff didn't show enough affection towards Anna. Years ago, he wouldn't even had dreamed of calling the Queen anything other than Her Royal Highness, but the years of growing close to Anna had also brought years of growing closer to Elsa. Although there was still some formality to their relationship, Kristoff would often go to her to talk about Anna and how to address certain problems. She had been the first person he'd gone to about asking Anna for her hand in marriage, and now she was his sister-in-law. He'd told Elsa not to tell Anna why he was terrified to touch her. But Elsa's loyalty was always to her sister first, and she'd told Anna the reason Kristoff really wasn't showing her much love.

They were still working on getting past that issue, but now Anna knew the reason, she tried to reassure him. He was the only one she wanted to love, the only guy she wanted to be with. That meant a hell of a lot. Anna was lucky to have Kristoff to go to when she had a problem, and just a hug from him was hugely comforting. Then Anna remembered that Elsa didn't have a man like that anymore. She frowned, and let go of Kristoff, rubbing her temples.

"I... I just can't understand how it all went so... Wrong!" she sighed. The memories ricocheted around her mind like tiny little bullets, but none of them made sense. All they did was erode her skull and leave her feeling like a failure.

She leant on the edge of the trailer carrying Kristoff's ice and he smiled slightly down at her.

"Love is like that sometimes," he shrugged. "That's just the way it is."

***

Remembering it all was like slowly having her flesh scraped off with a crumbling knife.

_She held her finger up against the blue painted wall and watched a swirl of ice appear, creeping up the tall interior of the room and expanding with every second that passed. When she lifted her finger off the wall, her eyes fixed onto the point where her finger had been and she concentrated. Hard. The ice didn't stop growing. With her eyes, she managed to make the ice climb higher and higher, all over the ceiling and down the opposite wall._

_There was a soft and beautifully familiar knock at the window behind her. She spun around as the frost stopped growing and fell to the floor in glittering shards, and her face lit up like a lamp at the sight of her visitor._

_She threw open the window as her forbidden courter flew in, almost knocking her over._

_"What are you doing here? You shouldn't be here!" she giggled, grabbing hold of his hands and pulling him to the ground._

_"If I didn't know you better, I'd say you weren't pleased to see me," he laughed, flicking Elsa's plait._

_She raised an eyebrow, trying to stop smiling as she put her hands on her hips. He stepped forward, playing with her hair and kissing her face._

_"And what makes you think I'm pleased to see you?" she barked. He grinned deviously and knocked Elsa's hands off her hips, replacing them with his own._

_His head moved forwards so he was mere millimeters away from her. Her heart was hammering like a bass drum. She had to look down away from his eyes so that she didn't do something stupid, but he simply took a hand off her waist and lifted up her head so she was forced to look at him._

_"'Cause," he began, pulling her against him so their bodies were pressing against each other's without a single iota of space, "you love it when we do this."_

_Slowly, Jack pushed his feet off the ground, taking Elsa into the air with him. She opened her mouth to object, but he just sucked all the air from her lungs with a kiss. All objection fell away, and she placed both hands onto his neck as they tilted to an almost horizontal position. Suddenly, he let go of her waist and she fell downwards. He swooped down and picked her up again, laughing at her terrified expression._

_"Jack! Don't you dare do that ever again!" she shrieked, slapping his chest._

_He kissed the top of her head._

_"What, you didn't think I was gonna let you actually hit the ground, did you?" he asked, grinning into her presence. His nose was touching hers, and she could smell his frosty scent. She closed her eyes for a moment and let his lips fall onto hers. Oddly, they were the only parts of him that weren't cold. They were so soft and warm, whereas hers were as ice-cold as the rest of her body._

Jack had commented on several occasions that the name that Elsa had been dubbed with - 'The Snow Queen' - suited her on many levels. The obvious reasons went without saying, but it was also the fact that her attitude to life and other people was quite cold. She wasn't looking for love and she didn't want to be loved, but Jack... Jack was different. Without even speaking about it, she knew he understood her wholly and completely, and he was the only person who could take her hands in his when she was crying and warm her up through the cold of his presence.

She hadn't let him love her at first. She'd shut him out and pretended he didn't exist, until she'd finally given in and let him stay for a night.

"_One night,_" she'd reminded him. "_Then you get to leave me alone._"

But it had easily been the most beautiful night of her life. And when morning had come, she hadn't wanted him to leave.

_He slowly pulled back the covers and stepped onto the creaky wooden floor, sighing._

_"Jack, stop."_

_A hand on his forearm and the newly said words made him cease to move for several seconds. He turned around and was a little taken aback. He'd underestimated her beauty. With a face fresh from make up and her unruly hair attempting to break free from her chunky braid, the woman he'd spent the night with was undeniably beautiful._

_"Don't leave," she whispered, laying chest-down on the crisp white mattress and looking straight up at him. Before he could reply, she leapt forward and tore his hoodie up over his head, then pulling it over herself. With that, she snuggled back down onto the mattress again, the covers wrapped around her. "There, now you can't go," she mumbled. Her mouth was covered by the bedcovers, but her eyes peered out at Jack. Such deep, illusive, ocean eyes. Hell, they got him every time. And every time it was like swallowing glass and having it stick in his windpipe, tearing away at the tissue until it bled. Something caught there and wouldn't leave._

_A smile slowly crept across his face, and he flopped down onto the bed next to her and pulled her into him. His arms went around her waist and het back; his head rested on top of hers; her head rested on his freezing chest with her hands flat against it next to her. He was whole again._

_"I wasn't going to go anyway," he told her._

_"I know," she softly replied. "Just making sure."_

No one had ever really connected with her in such a way that she willingly let them past her defenses.

Except maybe Hans.

But that was a long time ago.


	4. The Last Time, Part One

**A/N: **Hey there!Yes, it's me again, bringing you chapter four of the not-so-hot mess that is Frost. Truth is, I like to burn your feels! Hehe. :) And if you like having your feels burned, then I hope this is the chapter for you! I was practically wetting myself when I wrote it. ;D

I can't believe I'm posting chapter four! If I'm honest, it's not the fact that I haven't written much yet - I'm currently writing chapter 9 - it's just I can't get to a computer as much as I'd like to, which sucks, but my grandma's announced she's getting a tablet so maybe she'll let me use it so I can update a little more often :) And i'm feeling really motivated. I have more reviews than I have fingers and toes - which has never happened before - and more follows and favorites than I ever imagined I would have. You guys are the best. Seriously, when I log on I'm overwhelmed by everything and I feel like crying! :')

So yeah, crying aside (cringe -_-), here's chapter four. It's kind of a songfic to _The Last Tim_e by Taylor Swift ft. Gary Lightbody, and it's in two part. Btw sorry for the constant cliffhangers. I just. Can't. Stop. Writing. Them!

Lots of Frosty love,

- Thos xx

* * *

The days trickled by like sips of salty water. Some days were spent talking to her unborn child until her throat was raw; others were spent just crying. Whatever she was doing, she would always be in shut up in her room. The kingdom had begun to wonder where their Queen was as they did not know of her impregnated state. She had been very discrete about hiding her now considerably noticeable bump when she was in public, but she'd given up on showing her face to her people. Only Anna, Kristoff and a limited amount of palace guards knew about Elsa being pregnant. Even her niece and nephew, who she used to see every day (but had recently been refusing any other human company but herself and her child's) did not know. They had simply been told that Auntie Elsa was practising for a speech and was not to be disturbed.

Subsequent to the irregularity of her day, Elsa's sleep patterns were also unstructured. She would have no recollection of the time of day when she fell asleep and woke, and as she had the curtains drawn most of the time, she wouldn't bother herself to find out. She hated looking out of her window and watching the world come alive whilst she was stuck inside her room, slowly dying inside of herself.

"Elsa, please, you have to come out of there!" Anna had tried pleading with her from the other side of her bedroom door, but it had little effect on her.

"You're gonna make yourself ill. And it's not good for the baby either! The scan is tomorrow... Why don't you just come for a walk with me through the woods? Clear your head ready for it?"

Elsa could feel herself literally freezing from the inside out.

What?

The scan couldn't be tomorrow. It couldn't. Where had all the days - the weeks - gone? They were meant to have found Jack by now. He was meant to have come back. She had it all planned out. He'd climb in through her bedroom window when she was crying; he'd dry her tears and tell her he'd heard the news. He'd hold her stomach and whisper to it and that's when he'd look up.

_And you'd open your eyes into mine, and everything feels better._

It _would_ be better; everything would be fixed. But now only a day stood between her and the scan that could determine her child's gender and everything was so horribly wrong.

"Don't you have your own children to worry about?" Elsa screeched at the door after a moment's pause. She flopped back down onto the bed as fresh, disgustingly familiar tears welled up in her eyes. All she ever did was cry nowadays, and it was both emotionally and physically draining. Her hands flew back down to her stomach, hoping to draw some comfort from her child as she waited to hear footsteps leading away from her bedroom door.

But she didn't. Instead, she heard her sister inhale deeply and begin to talk again.

"You forgot, didn't you," she sighed, her voice flat. "Look, Elsa, I can't tell you how to live your life. But you can't stay in there forever. I promise you, they're doing everything they can to find Jack... Even Kristoff's taken Sven out and gone looking for him... He hasn't returned..."

That made Elsa start. She gently sat up and padded over to the door, her cold feet creating small swirls of ice on the marble floor. She unlocked the door and opened it the smallest fraction, peering out at her sister. Anna's hair was down and framing her nervous face; her worried eyes wide and bewildered.

"Kristoff hasn't returned?"

Anna shook her head.

Elsa opened the door completely and absorbed every detail of her young sister that she could - her twitching hands, her slight weight loss, the little lines underneath her eyes that definitely weren't there before. She threw her arms open and Anna flew into them, holding her as tight as she could.

"I'm sure it's nothing to worry about," Anna reassured herself aloud after breaking away from Elsa, forcing an optimistic smile onto her face. "He's probably found Jack and is on his way home right now, but... It's just that he left on Wednesday... And-And the kids miss him."

"Wait, so that'd mean he's... He's been gone for four days...!"

Anna shrugged.

"Why didn't you tell me?" she asked, encasing Anna in another hug.

"You have your own problems, and it's not like he specified a time he'd be back..."

Elsa pulled apart, a sympathetic look on her face.

"It's just Ivan... He really, really misses him... And so does Ava... And me."

"Oh Anna..."

The two sisters hugged again, and when they pulled apart, Elsa put two fingers underneath Anna's chin to bring her head up so she looked at her.

"If he's not back by dawn tomorrow, we will abandon the search for Jack and set one up for Kristoff instead. Okay?"

"No, Elsa, you can't do that! You have to find Jack and -"

"Look, wherever Jack is, he obviously doesn't want to be found. Kristoff is important to you and we're going to have him back by the end of the week or I will literally freeze time until I find him."

Anna giggled childishly, a gleam of hope in her eyes.

"Um, I don't think you can do that?"

Elsa chuckled back, raking a hand through her loose hair.

"Well I will if I have to!"

Her younger sister smiled, playing with the hemming at the top of her yellow dress.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever you say," she grinned. She looked down at the floor, and when she looked back up, her grin had vanished and was replaced by her best sad-puppy impression. "Will you come downstairs, Els? Just for a little while?"

Elsa sighed. Back to this again.

"I really don't know, Anna..."

"Oh come on," Anna pleaded with her sister. "Just for dinner? If it's too much, you can come back up. But everyone's missing you and I can't imagine how sick you are of just looking at these walls..."

A waver in Elsa's expression showed Anna her pleas were working. "Well, I do need to repaint the walls..."

Anna let out an excited squeal and she took her sister's comment as a leeway for her to get her out. Grabbing onto her wrist, Anna pulled Elsa out of the door and down the long, lonely, echoing corridor.

By the time they had run down the hundreds of glossy marble steps, Elsa had just about wriggled her strangled wrist out of her sister's grip.

"Anna, stop! I can't go to dinner looking like this!" she cried, breaking free from her. Anna did as her sister had asked and stopped, turning to look at her.

The troubled woman wore a silk nightgown falling down over her skinny figure which stopped at her knees. Little cotton straps held the dress up, and that was all the was. She wore no shoes, no cape, no belt or crown. She felt feverishly bare and dishevelled.

"Can't you just... Magic something up?" Anna asked, motioning with her hands. Elsa smiled.

"Quite literally," she replied.

Closing her eyes, Elsa held her hands up above her head, and Anna was aware of the temperature falling a few degrees. Before long there was a spritz of ice visible, snaking its way up from the hem of Elsa's nightgown to the very top. It was the colour of the sky, and shimmered in the pretty lighting of the palace. It expanded over her, climbing over the flesh of her arms and down over her legs. It spiralled all over her like the moon orbiting the Earth, and it glittered off every surface in such a melodic way that it lit up the whole room with a proud, bright aura.

Moments later, her work was done. No longer did a worried, tired Elsa stand before Anna. No, here was the elegant, profoundly beautiful Queen of Arendelle, ready to take on the world.

She wore a glimmering, floor-length dress with sheer white sleeves. The sleeves cut to a halt under her underarms, showing off the pure skin of her shoulders. The sleeves were attached to the main body of her dress, which started with a heart-shaped neck line and ended on the floor, delicately finishing with a lace ice trim. There was also a sheer, shining train on her dress, attached at the back, which dusted the floor.

"Do you like it?" she asked after opening her eyes. Anna squinted in thought.

"Hmm… yes, I do. But lose the cape... thingy."

"Too grand?" Elsa asked.

"Too grand," her sister agreed.

In the best part of a second, Elsa had melted the train away and it had evaporated and dispersed into the air.

"And... Ooh, wait there," Anna added. She ran up a few stairs on the staircase they'd only just climbed down, and she leant over the marble railing to reach the top of some curtains framing a pretty window.

"Watch out," Elsa instinctively called out, knowing how clumsy her little sister still was, even though she was a mother and had endured many years of teaching her children to be careful. She wasn't about to practise what she preached, though.

"I'm watching," Anna reassured her sister. She liked to think she had grown less klutzy with time, but it wasn't always the case.

She pulled a soft, silken, light-blue ribbon from around the curtain and quickly ran back down the stairs. Blowing the dust off it, she gently wrapped it around her sister's middle, twice, before tying it up in a neat bow at the back.

"There," Anna smiled, standing up straight. "You look... You look beautiful, Elsa."

"I was shooting at relatively decent, but beautiful works okay too," she laughed.

The two sisters strolled into the dining room together, where Ava and Ivan had already been seated by the nanny. They were trying their hardest to have the proper etiquette; sitting up in their best Sunday dress with their satin napkins covering their fronts, but the minute they set their eyes on their long-unseen Aunt, they flew off their chairs and hurtled across the room towards her.

"Ah, hey, you two!" she laughed as her niece and nephew hugged her legs. Her arms snaked around their backs as she tried to crouch down, pulling them tighter.

Moments later their embrace fell away, and the Queen asked the twins to step back so she could take a proper look at them.

Wow. Have they grown? she thought to herself. They seemed to have matured so much more since she had last seen them. She had to remind herself they were only five.

Ava's soft strawberry-blonde hair was tied up in bunches either side of her head. She wore a silky navy-blue dress with a black jacket and black tights. Her tiny little feet were covered by soft, satiny blue shoes. As always, her golden-brown eyes shone out inquisitively, studying her aunt in the same way her aunt was studying her.

Ivan looked quite the little man and a spitting image of his father in a long-sleeved light-blue shirt with a navy waistcoat over the top. He wore dark blue jeans and black hobnailed boots. The only thing that really gave away his true messy and adventurous nature was his mop of blonde hair that sat on his head like an unruly tiger's mane.

"You two look so much... Older!" she remarked, smiling at them both.

"That's 'cause you've been sitting in your room for, like, ever!" Ivan groaned. Elsa chuckled, but Anna, desperate to remain tactful about the situation, grabbed Ivan by the shoulders and steered him towards the table.

Elsa was about to stand up when Ava delicately placed one ear to her stomach.

"Do you think the baby can hear me?" she whispered. Elsa's eyes widened in utter shock.

"What?" she breathed, trying to steady herself as she almost fell onto the floor in surprise. "How... Who told you?"

"No one. I worked it out for myself," Ava told Elsa proudly. "You're not fat, so I knew it was a baby. I heard you speaking to it the other day. It is a baby, right?"

Elsa was astounded. Not horrified or desperate to falsely correct her, but just astounded. Either she'd done an absolutely awful job of hiding it all, or her five-year-old niece was a very clever girl. Maybe it was both.

"Yes, it is a baby," Elsa told her quietly. She watched Ava's face light up with delight. "But we mustn't tell anyone. Not yet. It's a surprise, and we don't want to spoil it. So no telling anyone at skating class, not even Jorgie, okay?"

Ava nodded, in complete agreement. Usually, she would protest at not being able to tell her sixth-bestest friend something (after Ivan, Anna, Kristoff, Elsa and Jack), but she sensed her aunt meant business so she agreed.

"Good girl," Elsa whispered, and kissed her softly on the top of the head.

"Are you guys gonna have some dinner or what?" Anna called over from the dining table.

"Come on," Elsa smiled to Ava, and stood up, taking her by the hand and leading her over to the table.

Dinner was somewhat surprisingly normal. They each took turns to partake in mediocre and occasionally obscure conversation - How was your day? Is your cold any better? What did you get up to today? Are you enjoying your food? When was the last time you saw an apple fall in the orchards behind the palace? Do you need a new toothbrush?

And round and round. It wasn't that Elsa didn't like this semi-informal conversation; no, she actually enjoyed it, but her mind kept swinging back and forth through all her current dilemmas and it made it hard to concentrate on anything.

"I think I need to practise my ice-chopping," Ivan wondered aloud, splitting his slice of baguette in half as the crumbs went flying all over him. "I haven't practised since before Daddy left."

"And I think you need to practise not making bread crumbs go everywhere," his mother mused, leaning across the table to wipe the crumbs off his face.

"When will Daddy be back, Mommy?" Ava enquired. Anna sighed.

"Soon, sweetie. He's just gone to get Uncle Jack and then -"

"Yeah, but like, how many days or hours or seconds?" Ivan impatiently interrupted.

"Well, I'm not sure for certain, but definitely very s -"

Anna broke off, her attention suddenly fixed on her sister. At the end of the table, Elsa was standing, her eyes wide and her lips parted, physically shaking as she looked out of the window to their right.

"Elsa? Is... Everything okay?" Anna asked nervously.

Elsa stood completely rigid, in a bewildered and shocked daze. Her insides were knotting up and releasing themselves every nanosecond, and it was painful to breath. She didn't even want to let herself look at it, for the nauseatingly sharp fear that it wasn't what she thought, hoped and willed it to be, but somehow she couldn't drag her eyes away from it.

Anna came to the conclusion that Elsa was definitely fixated on something out of the window, but as she followed the direction of her sister's eyes, she realised she was wrong.

Elsa wasn't looking at something outside of the window. She was looking at something on the window.

There it was, in all its deathly cold, shimmering glory.

Frost.


	5. The Last Time, Part Two

**A/N: **Hey there! How is everyone? I'm really, REALLY excited for this chapter. I hope you have as much fun reading this as I did writing it, because I was literally jumping off the walls as I wrote this up.

Each time I log on, I'm shocked more and more by the support I'm getting. In the real world I am an awkward, shy, dystopian teenage with not a lot to vouch for, but on here I feel like I'm a part of a community, and people are reading what I'm writing and actually liking it. For that, I have to say thank you. A huge, huge thank you.

Right, okay, boring backstory and poignant moment aside, I bring to you the much awaited The Last Time, Part Two!

- Thos xx

* * *

Anna stopped moving. Nothing did anything. For a fraction of a second, she could've sworn time stopped. Just for a moment, but the earth was so chronically still that she could find no other explanation for it.

Then everything started up again, ten times faster than before.

A small squeak escaped from Elsa's mouth, like the sound a shoe would make when skidding across a marble floor. Her hands trembled as they delicately laid across her bump. Her eyes still followed the growing frost on the window.

Anna stood up, watching the doors opposite. She awaited the next thing to happen with definite anticipation. She knew what was to come.

"Mommy?" Ava asked softly. Her mother didn't reply.

The grand, wooden, double doors burst open in an instant, creating a draft sweeping through the room. Elsa's head snapped towards the door so quickly it could be a competitor with the speed of light.

In front of his wife, children and sister-in-law, stood a breathless, exhausted Kristoff.

Never before had Anna been so incredibly thrilled to see the rugged blonde hair atop her husband's head, or the frayed ends of his jacket, or the splits in the sides of his leather boots.

"DADDY!" came shrieks in unison, followed by Ava and Ivan racing towards him as fast as they could. Mere moments later, Anna did the same.

"Ivan... Avy..." he breathed, bending down to hug his children. Moments later he stood, as they hung onto his legs, to hold his wife.

"Anna," he whispered, wrapping his arms around her so very tightly.

"Kristoff," she returned, the rapid tornado in her stomach finally calmed.

Suddenly, he broke off, stepping back.

"I found... I found... Watch out..." he panted, still clearly out of breath from running home.

On cue, the pale, skinny, blue-eyed figure ran around Kristoff, entering the room with his face like thunder and his eyes fixed on Elsa.

_I find myself at your door_  
_And just like all those times before_  
_I'm not sure how I got there_  
_All roads they lead me here_

The air in her lungs was extracted and destroyed in the space of a second. She shook as madly as a hypothermic child.

His eyes slowly, painfully tore off hers and trickled down her body to her swollen stomach. Everything around him shattered.

"Is it true?" he whispered. His eyes darted back up to hers again, the temperature in his voice desperately rising. "Is it true?!" he roared. His voice was louder than a lion's, but his courage was smaller than a mouse's. Elsa saw the scars behind his eyes and bled into them.

_And right before your eyes, I'm breaking._

She stepped forward. The world spun around her so quickly she had to grab onto the table to steady herself. Two paces. Three. Four paces towards Jack.

Bittersweet memories shot at her with every step she took. Memories of dancing together all alone in the ballroom; memories of flying over countries and cities and towns that she'd never even heard the name of on his back; memories of tears and turmoil and the worst times of her life, sidled all up with the best. Damn, it hurt.

_This is the last time you tell me I've got it wrong_  
_This is the last time I say it's been you all along_

"Because if it's not, I swear, I'm walking straight out that door again..."

_This is the last time I let you in my door_

He couldn't even control what he was saying. What was he saying? He didn't even know anymore. He'd flown four hundred miles in chronic rain and blazing sunlight, the light burning his skin and the rain washing him away. He'd battered through trees and towns and putrid city smog, with no food, no water and no rest. She was the only thing on his mind, once he'd caught word of the rumors about the Queen's pregnancy. He had to know. And here it was, staring him so explicitly in the face that he couldn't even let himself see it.

"Yes."

Simple words are always the ones that hurt you the most. The short, sharp letters were strung together and not backed up with an explanation or a justification. This made them penetrate the very flesh of his existence even deeper.

"It's... true?" he attempted to shout. But he barely even made a sound. There wasn't a single muscle in his body that didn't feel as if it was in a scorching, aching, murdering inferno.

"Yes, it's true," Elsa confirmed. She was oddly calm, standing tall and elegant in her gown with her hands laid across her middle. She was sure it was only an eye-of-the-storm calm though. She hadn't allowed herself to open her eyes to see his reaction.

There was a soft pause as the world tried to slide into perspective. Jack was aware of the door behind him click shut as the others left, but the noise sounded so hollow and faraway.

"So, wait... So who's the father?"

That did it. Elsa's eyes burst open and the softest spritzes of ice laced across her finger tips.

"I don't sleep around, Jack!" the Queen of Arendelle exploded, her expression more hurt than angered.

_I'm sorry. I didn't mean that the way it came out. I don't know what I'm saying. I'm just so confused..._ He wanted to say all this and more to her, but his voice box had retired and gone packing. His lips opened and no sound came out. His lids drooped over his ice-blue orbs as he composed himself.

"So... No... I..." When he trusted himself to speak again, all that tumbled out of his slack mouth were the beginnings of disjointed sentences that echoed through the room. Slowly, he looked up at Elsa to discover she was looking straight back at him.

"Can... Can we start this again?" he asked softly, tears glittering against his irises.

Elsa tried for a smile, simultaneously welling up.

"Sure," she replied. A minutes' composure followed, before she cleared her throat and smiled again through her tears. "Jack, we're having a baby."

Droplets of icy water spilled out of his eyes and down his cheeks.  
"We're having a baby," he repeated softly. Only then did it sink in.

The Guardian of the children of the world was having his own child.

The Queen of Arendelle was pregnant with the heir to the throne.

Jack and Elsa were having a baby.

"We're having a baby," he said again, and a smile crept across his face. Elsa smiled back and let out something that resembled a sob and a laugh rolled into one.

"We're having a baby!" he cried out, and it rung out in the grand open room. He began to walk towards Elsa. "We're having a baby... I'm having a child... We're having a baby!" He was running now. The moment he met Elsa's side, he dropped down onto his knees in front of her and clasped his hands around his unborn child.

"Oh my god..."

The skin of her middle was so impossibly soft and he felt like he was poisoning her beauty with his very touch.

He put his forehead head on her swollen stomach and shut his eyes.

"I... I promise to protect you... Forever. I promise."

Elsa snaked her hands into Jack's hair and kept them there, holding onto him as tight as she could.

"This is the last time I ruin things... This is the last time I hurt you. I'm staying now. I won't hurt you ever again."

_This is the last time, I won't hurt you any more_

"I swear."


End file.
